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Huawei In Talks With U.S. Companies Over 5G Licensing Deal: report

A Huawei executive disclosed that the company has been in early-stage talks with some U.S. telecoms companies about licensing its 5G network technology to them.

The offer was first touted in mid-September: Huawei would be willing to license the company’s entire 5G platform to any U.S. business. Reuters on Friday reported that Huawei executive Vincent Pang confirmed “there are some companies talking to us,” albeit it still requires “a long journey to really finalize everything.” “They have shown interest,” he added, saying conversations are only a couple of weeks old and not at a detailed level yet.

Huawei leads the world for the quality and capabilities of 5G networking and has invested billions to develop its 5G technology since 2009.

The U.S. government, claiming that Huawei equipment could be used to spy on customers, has led a campaign to convince allies to bar it from their 5G networks. Huawei has repeatedly denied the claim.

Huawei believes that the situation is politically motivated and not rooted in facts. Licensing in 5G techmology to a U.S. company could help Huawei respond to allegations of Chinese state sponsorship and national security compromises. In offering to open its code to U.S. diligence, Huawei would make it impossible for security hawks to allege hidden backdoors in its hardware and software.

In May, Huawei, was placed on a U.S. blacklist over national security concerns, banning it from buying American-made parts without a special license.

Washington also has brought criminal charges against the company, alleging bank fraud, violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran, and theft of trade secrets, which Huawei denies.

Rules that were due out from the Commerce Department earlier this month are expected to effectively ban the company from the U.S. telecoms supply chain.

Currently there are no U.S. 5G providers and European rivals Ericsson and Nokia are generally more expensive.

The truth isthat there no U.S. company will likely license Huawei's 5G equipment, unless the politics changes and we see trade talk concessions.